It may not come as a surprise to those familiar with crafts and hobbies retailer Hobby Lobby that the evangelical Christian-owned company has a keen interest in the biblical Middle East, in fact the company has been assembling a collection of ancient artifacts for nearly a decade. In October 2015, the Daily Beast…

Ever since Donald Trump signed the xenophobic travel ban that has wreaked devastating effects on immigrant and refugee travelers, the country has erupted in a spectrum of protests. The Museum of Modern Art is participating by shelving some of its most iconic Western pieces and replacing them with work by Iranian,…

On April 6, 2016, Iraqi refugee and UC Berkeley student Khairuldeen Makhzoomi boarded a plane to Oakland, California. Before the plane departed, he was removed, interrogated and searched by the FBI, and, when all was said and done, forced to secure a flight on a different airline. The reason: another passenger had…

Horrifying reports continue to pile up about the ways in which the Islamic State is using the rape and sexual slavery of Yazidi women as a tool of war. A new report in the New York Times makes it clear that it’s also become an attractive recruiting tool, a draw for men from conservative Muslim societies where casual…

Zainab Bangura, a U.N. special representative, recently concluded a tour of refugee camps that house refugees largely from Syria and Iraq - countries where the Islamic State hold a large amount of territory. The Washington Post reports that she recounted the stories of sexual violence, rape and abuse to Middle East…

An Iraqi newspaper is reporting that three women in Mosul had their hands chopped off by the Islamic State as punishment for an unspecified crime. During the same public punishment event, held on a "celebration stage" in the town's center, five men were reportedly flogged for using their cellphones to contact…

The PR firm responsible for promoting the release of the Sleepy Hollow's first season on DVD faced just about the worst possible timing for their push yesterday, as an email celebrating "Headless Day" went out to fans and media at just about the exact moment that news broke that ISIS had beheaded American journalist…

According to the United Nations, the radical Sunni Islamist group ISIS currently attempting to take over Iraq and Syria has demanded that those women and girls living in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul be genitally mutilated.

After taking control of Mosul, Iraq's largest city last month, the extreme al Qaeda splinter group ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams) are continuing their New Iraqi Order. This time, instead of telling women to stay inside, they are covering the faces of mannequins.

This week, members of the extreme al Qaeda splinter group ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams) took control of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city. And they wasted no time instituting Sharia law that requires women to stay inside and cover themselves from head to toe.

And here you thought it was impossible to find a vintage Chanel: There's a new exhibit in the U.K., built around a brass bag made in Mosul, Iraq sometime in the 1300s. Inlaid with silver-and-gold scenes of court life, it's basically the fourteenth-century Iraqi equivalent of a Judith Leiber clutch.

It's happening: the Marine Corps officially announced — as expected — that it will allow women to start training at its intensive infantry officer school at Quantico, VA and join some ground combat battalions. The changes will provide the Marine Corps' 13,800 women (out of 197,800 men — the Marines are the most…

As part of the Rise Above documentary series, Laylan, the 20-year-old star of her all-woman basketball team, explains how she and her teammates can challenge entrenched patriarchal attitudes about gender by playing basketball. Only a year ago, Laylan and her teammates hadn't played at all — some of them didn't even…

Last April, the Marine Corps announced that it would begin integrating female officers into its Infantry Officer Course, a monumental step towards allowing women to serve in front-line combat that would also open up more promotions for women, some of whom have been complaining for decades that prohibiting women from…

In a desolate stretch in the northwest corner of Iraq, something strange is happening. There is a growing epidemic of young women who are killing themselves after being forced into arranged marriages, often with their relatives. In the city of Sinjar, the practice is centuries old, but as their society is slowly being…